Alien Pedagogy

While reading The Odyssey, our focus has been developing the ability to analyze cultural norms revealed by text. Today students demonstrated this style of analysis through speeches and/ or reflective writing.

We began with a focused group discussion on whether it’s ever OK to give up, re-read the section that we’d study intensively and then groups began to identify key words and concepts required to analyze “The Lotus Eaters.” We listed the best concepts (more than once including drugs, responsibility, escape, obedience, home) on the board and from there went on to do RAFT writing (which I use based on recommendation from Jim Lerch, though Dr. Rojas also mentioned it at the EARCOS conference).

• Role – Odysseus
• Audience – His men who are high on the Lotus
• Format – Persuasive speech
• Topic – Why they should return to the boat

The students wrote. They were required to use at least five of six key concepts written on the board. They then read aloud. From there, they wrote the values The Odyssey attempts to convey.

Reflection:

• Student questions on theme were insightful.
• Student questions on grammar revealed more desire to take risks than usual – they manipulated tense and even used prefixes.
• Voice happened.
• “How do you think Odysseus would feel when he sees his men lazing about?” led to stronger readings.
• The values and evidence discussed in the final activity demonstrated a strong understanding of the text.

On the whole, it was quite an enjoyable lesson for students. It was also effective.